As a user, making use of REY implies having control over your personal data when enabling third parties make use of it.

It differs from other approaches in that it respects the federated architecture of the Internet, where data are scattered across different, heterogeneous sources. Blockchain is used as decentralized ledger for keeping track of data usage.

In order to use a REY app, a user needs to follow the next steps:

Download Metamask to create a decentralized identity, which simply consists of a pair of cryptographic keys.

Submit write permissions to trusted websites where you have personal data. This will let them share data about you in REY to those readers you proactively accept. To achieve this, you just need to browse REY-enabled sites that would guide you and request your browser extension to build and sign the write permission using your private key.

Then you’re ready to use a REY app by providing the read permissions it could require. For example, the “Your entropy” sample app provides a measure of the amount of information you have in your Traity profile. To make it work, it requires your read permission to use the app, and your read permission for the app to read your Traity data.

You can browse your exchanges of data at reputation.network. That’s a blockchain explorer for REY that shows how, when, and by whom were your permissions used.